Photoshop crashes on one account, not on another

[MacInWin]

MBPr Mid-2015, running Mojave 10.14.3

Installed Photoshop CC version, latest update from Adobe, today. PS CC has several operational errors in the user interface and crashes every time I try to change printers. Every time, not some of the time, EVERY time. Easy to replicate.

Called Adobe, worked with help desk tech for about 45 minutes, tried settings on PS, my account settings, login items, permissions on Adobe folders, even making sure Photoshop can use the Accessibility items that apparently have worked with some folks. No change, Crashes every time I try to change printers. EVERY time.

The tech had me install the 2018 version of PS CC. No change. Crash EVERY time.

As a last ditch item, the tech had me create a new account, all clean. Did so, then launched PS CC. Worked perfectly, even to the printer, prints beautifully. No issues at all. So not an Adobe issue. NOTE: PS was NOT reinstalled, just run in the new account. It had been installed for all users. Both 2019 and 2018 versions worked perfectly.

Back to my account. Removed all items from my "Start at Login" box. No change, Crashes every time. Both versions.

Booted in Safe mode, logged into my account. Ran PS CC, got an error that it couldn't use the graphics chip, that it was ignoring it and starting anyway. Eventually opened. Went to change printers, crashed out. EVERY time. Both versions.

Ran Etrecheck from my account, then re-ran it from the new account. Compared the results. Found some lingering stuff from istat menu that I cleaned out of my account. No change. Crashes every time, both versions.

Noticed that on my account the file format for my external drives were noted to be "Journaled HFS+" while on the new account the same drives were noted to be "Mac OS Extended." NO idea what that difference means, but decided to disable NTFS, just in case that was it. No change and no change in Etrecheck nomenclature. NTFS appears in System Preferences in both accounts and disabled in both.

Etrecheck from my account had three notifications that were missing from the new account--one for the Carbon Copy Cloner User Agent app, one for the Adobe Creative Cloud app and one for an app called Gemini that finds duplicate files. I have no idea what that might mean.

Etrecheck from my account has a launchd for Steamclean, new account did not. Removed Steam, rebooted, no change. PS in my account crashed every time, same PS in new account did not. Both versions.

So I'm out of ideas. Anybody got a clue what else to check? Any idea why one account calls it Journaled HFS+ and the other Macintosh OS Extended? That's about the only clue left that I haven't been able to pin down--what makes that difference in the two accounts?

Oh, and you don't have to reboot, just log out of my account and log into the new account and it works. Log out of the new and back into mine and it crashes. So I think that eliminates things that load a boot, before login. It has to be something on MY login that is creeping in, but as I said, I eliminated ALL of the items in System Preferences / Users and Groups under my account login items and there was no change.

 

[Slydude]

This is a shot in the dark, but have you tried deleting any PS-related preference files? Make sure the Library folder inside your user folder is visible and remove any PS preferences from the Preferences folder. Probably no need to delete the files just yet. Simply move them to another location.

Once you have deleted/moved the preference files launch PS and see if the problem resolves itself.

 

[IWT]

Hi Jake,

I'm no expert on any of this, but two generic-type ideas crossed my mind - you have probably done all this already, but....

1. Check that PS is permitted to control your Mac. I think you are running macOS Mojave.

2. Hold down Option + Command + Shift, then try opening PS. It may prompt you to delete your current settings/preferences. Whether it does or not, might be worth deleting them anyway.

That's all I can think of.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Sly, I took your advice. I went to ~/Library and found every plist associated with adobe, even if it wasn't a plist for Photoshop or CC (Reader, or Illustrator, for example). Moved them to a different folder and deleted them. Rebooted, Same problem, every time. I also compared plists in ~/Library between the two accounts. No difference.

Ian, I have given PS permission in security for Accessability and Full Disk Access. Crashes every time. I also did the Option/Command/Shift start up. Crashes every time.

For now, to use PS I have to change user. Not a catastrophe, but very annoying.

I wonder, can I run Mojave in a Virtual Machine under Parallels? At least then I wouldn't need to leave MY account to get to a clean account to run PS.

 

[MacInWin]

So, here is a question. Given that it does NOT crash on one account but does on another, whatever is the issue is NOT a boot item, but something launched at login. I've deleted all login items from my account to no avail, which tells me there is more launching than is listed in System Preferences/Users & Groups, my account. Where would those be? I looked in ~/Library/Launch Agents and found just two for adobe, one for coconutbattery and one for Dropbox.But I've eliminated CoconutBattery and Dropbox, so that didn't work. There must be other things launched ONLY when I log in.

 

[chscag]

@Jake:

Aside from those you mentioned check the following:

Macintosh HD/Library/LaunchAgents

Macintosh HD/Library/LaunchDaemons

Macintosh HD/System/Library/LaunchAgents

Macintosh HD/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/LaunchAgents

I'll keep digging to see if I can come up with some other areas where kexts may be starting up when you log in.

 

[Slydude]

@Jake:

Aside from those you mentioned check the following:

Macintosh HD/Library/LaunchAgents

Macintosh HD/Library/LaunchDaemons

Macintosh HD/System/Library/LaunchAgents

Macintosh HD/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

Wouldn't anything in those locations affect all accounts? If not on initial login they would seem to be applicable ((launch) once PS is launched in the "clean" account.

 

[chscag]

Wouldn't anything in those locations affect all accounts? If not on initial login they would seem to be applicable ((launch) once PS is launched in the "clean" account.

I don't know that for sure, but if something is launching on startup it should should show up there. He needs to check all possible locations where launching takes place.

 

[MacInWin]

No, I don't think that is logical, Charlie. I have tried just changing users, which leaves running the things that run system wide at boot, and it works on the new account, crashes on mine. And I've tried completely shutting down to change, logging in to the new account (it works) and then shutting completely down and log into my account, it crashes. And Etrecheck, run from my account and his account had differences, but I've been through all of them and it made no difference. The only remaining difference is that on my machine, the external drives are described as "Journaled HFS+" but on the new account Etrecheck they are called "Mac OS Extended." What app would make that change? It's only cosmetic, as the two descriptions are essentially the same thing, but why does Etrecheck on one account say one thing but something different on the other? Etrecheck is installed for ALL users, so it's exactly the same Etrecheck app running.

And I have tried Safe Boot, but it crashes the same way on my account and not on the new one in Safe Boot, which, I think, eliminated the system-wide apps that change system settings.

Frankly, I'm getting to the "stumped" state...

 

[MacInWin]

Still not solved. This is baffling. I have:

1. Uninstalled all applications that showed in LaunchAgents in my old account that were not in the new. No change.
2. Installed all applications that showed in LaunchAgents in my old account into the new. No change.
3. Run Etrecheck on both accounts and compared loaded kexts -- they match perfectly.
4. Gone through all settings in System Preferences to see that they match between the two accounts -- they do. No change.
5. Run in the new account every application that is in the old account to see if one of the old account applications does something. No change.

So what can it possibly be in one account that is not in the other? Where else, other than ~/Library/LaunchAgents, are things that are launched for a user that differs for each user?

Also, if I decide to nuke/pave the drive and reinstall Mojave, if I restore from TM or CCC will all of those same things be put back where they were so that I still have the exact same issue? It's not worth going through all that if all I am going to end up with is what I've got now.

What about if I nuke/pave/install, create a new account, and THEN restore from CCC into my directory. Will that restore the ~/Library as it is now, or is that not in the clone restore? Will I have problems with permissions on my files if I do that or does CCC "fix" the permissions as it clones the files back to my new home directory? Never done that before, just wondered how it handles that.

 

[chscag]

@Jake:

I was just wondering.... When you created the new account it also created a new Keychain for that account, right?

Do you think something in the original Keychain could be the culprit?

Just doing some guessing here Jake because it looks like you've pretty well covered everywhere that kexts and startup files could be launching from.

 

[MacInWin]

Charlie, I just created the account. Did not do anything special with keychain.

However, I have one more kind-of hint. I have one solitaire card game where the trackpad/mouse and pointer seem to be poorly calibrated. Basically, to grab a stack of cards to move them, I have to click about 1/4 inch above the actual stack to select it. Nowhere else is that mis-calibration obvious. However, playing that exact same game on the NEW account does not have the calibration issue, the cursor is dead on. I haven't noted anywhere else where the pointer is not right on in the old account, but I am wondering if there is a file or configuration loading on MY account that is causing that mis-calibration and which may also be causing the other problems with Photoshop. Still don't know where to find that difference maker, but at least now I have one more thing to look for.

I really don't want to have to nuke/pave to get rid of whatever it is because to do that properly I would have to basically reinstall every application again without knowing which one would trigger the issue. I don't mind going through that once I know the guilty party, but the prospect of doing it "just because" I can't think of anything better is not appealing.

 

[MacInWin]

UPDATE: I gave up. Or gave in. What I did was to create a new account for me, copied over all the files (changing permissions as I went along), but not the ~/Library files. Mail and Message were two sticking points. I have Message sorted out so that I have the old messages in the new account, but while I have Mail to a point, some of my archived emails are not yet sorted. I've done it before, I just have to remember the steps to get it done. And Microsoft required a re-registration of Office365, of course. For now the old account is still there, as an insurance policy, but I disconnected the CCC backup drive until I'm happy with it all.

Never found the culprit. The new account works perfectly with both the card game and Photoshop, so I'm moving on.

Thanks for trying to help.

 

[chscag]

Well, it's too bad you could never solve that one. If anything like that happens in the future, we may have to send an Exorcist to drive out the demons in your Mac.